Feathers In Her Hair
by silverpuff
Summary: When Brennan babysits Parker, Booth leaves them playing Indians. But when he comes home, Parker is alone and terrified and Brennan is nowhere to be seen. At first he is angry, but then the terrible truth starts to unravel....
1. Chapter 1

**Feathers In Her Hair**

**Plot outline: Brennan baby-sits Parker for an afternoon, and they end up playing Indians. But when Booth comes home, he finds Parker alone and scared- Brennan has vanished. At first he is angry, but then the horrible truth starts to unfold. Where is Brennan? And why is Parker so scared? Booth's world is about to be turned upside down, and now he has no-one to talk to………..**

**I feel the need to write something dramatic and creepy- also it may contain some strong language.**

**Sorry- I am troubled at the minute. Once again, Parker is supposed to be about six or seven here.**

"Are you sure you'll be ok?" Booth walked backwards up the garden path, facing Brennan. His voice contained a hint of concern.

"Booth! We'll be fine! Won't we Parker?" She knelt down, so she was at eye level with the small boy.

"Yep. Dad, Bones promised we could play Indians! And she brought feathers and swords!"

He brandished a plastic sword and ran at his father with it.

Booth laughed and scooped him up.

"Well you go easy on Bones, she is a lady remember."

"No she's not, she's an Indian chief, and she's coming to get me!" He screamed as Brennan strode up to Booth and lifted him down. His screams turned into hysterical laughter as she tickled him to the ground, trying to avoid the plastic sword he was waving wildly.

Booth stood and watched for a minute, a smile spreading across his face.

"I gotta go. You guys have fun! And be careful!"

He bent down and kissed his son's head, whilst Brennan momentarily stopped tickling him. He smiled at her and stood up.

"I got my phone if you need me, ok?"

She nodded and regained her hold on Parker, smiling.

"See you at six."

She began the tickling again, laughing as Parker rolled and squirmed in the grass.

Booth got in his car and grinned to himself. If anything made him extremely happy, it was seeing the two most important people in his life as happy as that. He knew he didn't have to worry whilst Parker was with Brennan.

Parker frowned.

"Bones, you have to play properly. You aren't a real Indian without feathers. And you have to have your war paint put on too!"

Brennan clapped her hands together and smiled.

"Well I'm not really sure how to do it, so perhaps you could help me?"

Parker took her hand in his and led her towards a chair.

"Sit down," he instructed.

She did so and watched him clamber up onto the table, a brown paper bag in his hands. He knelt up to face her and opened the bag.

"Wow! These are really good!"

He took out a fist full of coloured feathers and laid them in a pile on the table.

"I think we should do your hair first, because then it wont smudge your war paint."

He spoke matter of factly, sounding very mature for his age. His head was cocked on one side and he had a hair brush in his hand.

"Right." He began to scoop up her hair, and smoothed it all out of her face. He fixed it back behind her ears with the hair pins she had provided, with surprising gentleness.

When he was satisfied, he took the feathers, and poked them one by one into her hair. He altered them a few times, and sighed when stray strands of hair didn't go his way, but eventually he sat back and picked up a mirror.

"There. Look!"

He handed her the mirror and grinned, extremely pleased with his work.

Brennan looked at her image and tried hard not to laugh. She had feathers poking out of her hair, which was secured in scruffy bundles either side of her head.

"Wow, I look like Tiger Lilly!"

Parker's face lit up.

"From Peter Pan! Dad reads me that, and we have the video! Can we watch it later?"

Brennan laughed and nodded.

"Of course, but first you have to finish my new Indian look." She handed him the box of face paints she had brought with her and sat very still.

Outside the clouds were shifting.

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"Ha! I found you savage!"

Brennan screamed. Parker had found her hiding place and come up behind her, making her jump.

"I will never surrender!" She yelled, brandishing her sword. She was taller than him, but this didn't seem to bother Parker. He drew his sword from his trousers and scowled at her.

"Neither will I!"

They had a mock sword fight, which Parker eventually won as Brennan tripped over a plant pot and tumbled to the ground.

"Ha! I win!"

Parker put the tip of his plastic sword to her throat, his paint stained face staring down at her triumphantly.

She threw her sword aside and held up her hands in defeat.

"Yep, you got me fair and square. Time for juice and biscuits I think."

Parker held out his small hand and heaved her up, escorting his prisoner Into the house with his sword.

Once inside, she poured Parker a glass of juice and handed him a packet of biscuits.

"Can we watch Peter Pan now?" he said, yawning.

"Of course, lets see how its really done."

She followed him into the living room and put the video on for him. He curled up on the sofa, staring intently at the television screen.

Her face felt sticky with the face paint he had applied thickly, so she reached for her hand bag and wiped some off with a wet wipe. Parker was too engrossed in the film to realise. Then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey it's me. You guys ok?" It was Booth.

"Yeah we're fine. Why are you calling, is everything alright?"

Parker had cuddled up to her on the sofa.

"Yep. I just wondered, that's all. What have you been doing?"

Brennan sighed.

"Well, I got made up as Tiger Lilly the Indian, then I got absolutely slaughtered in a vicious battle. Did you know your son is a grade A swordfighter?"

Booth laughed.

"I bet he's whacked now."

"Brennan put an arm around Parker. He was asleep.

"Well, he would be if he was awake. I'm watching Peter Pan on my own now. Oh, hang on, I gotta go, someone rang your door bell."

"Ok, see you at six then."

"Six."

Brennan hung up and got up as quietly as she could. She padded across the living room to the hall, and closed the door behind her so as not to disturb the sleeping child. She opened the door as the bell rang again.

Outside it had begun to rain.

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**You made it this far, please take the time to review! I'd do the same for you!**

**Thanks for reading.**

**x x x x x x x x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Hey everyone, I'm dead pleased with the response I have had for this story- does wonders for uplifting your floaty cloud mood even higher. Thank you to all you kind reviewers! I have no plans for this story, well, no written ones, I'm just seeing what happens when I sit down and start typing. Ok, I just sat down. There's a keyboard. And now I'm typing….**

When Booth pulled up outside his house, he was aware of a voice inside his head, screaming '_something is wrong.' _All day he had worried, even though he had left his son with the most responsible person he knew. He switched off the car engine and removed the keys from the ignition. It was very quiet. Perhaps they were still watching Peter Pan. Poor Bones. He had watched the film with his son so many times that now he knew the script off by heart. Now Bones would have to go through the same thing. He smiled to himself, trying to block out the strange voice that was niggling away at him. Everything was ok, because when he had called earlier, she had assured him it was.

The gravel crunched under his feet as he made his way to the front door. He passed the mailbox and looked inside. The letters were still there. Parker usually shot out of the door first thing in the morning to collect them- he even had a special step because he couldn't yet reach the box.

Well maybe he just forgot today, with the excitement off Bones coming to look after him.

_He didn't forget, something is wrong._

Booth carried on walking, past the living room window. He cupped his eyes and peered in, realizing suddenly that the curtains were closed. No sound was coming from inside. In fact everywhere was silent- even the birds had abandoned their song.

_Something is very wrong._

Finally he reached the front door. The voice in his head wouldn't leave him alone. Looking away from the door and into the garden, he noticed that some of the plants had been trodden down, as had the longer grass. Well that doesn't prove anything. It was probably Parker- he loved to hide in places like that when he was playing Indians. He turned back to the front door.

Booth tried once more to dismiss the voice, but couldn't. He didn't know what was wrong, but something definitely wasn't right.

The lab was pretty quiet. Hodgins was milling around doing what he usually did, whilst trying to wind up Zack at the same time. It was working. Zack stormed down the steps of the platform, grumbling about Hodgins under his breath.

Hodgins smiled guiltily to himself, shocked at how much he enjoyed the process of irritating his younger colleague. He shook his head and strolled over to the desk. The phone on the desk was beeping- there was an urgent message. He pressed the button and sat down heavily in a chair to listen to it, surprised that no-one else had.

"_Hello? Hodgins? Zack? Listen, you have to help us! There's a guy trying to get into the house! He wants to take Parker! Somebody please pick up……Holy crap……"_

Hodgins sat bolt upright, sending a cup of cold coffee cascading over the edge of the desk. He had never heard Brennan sound so thoroughly petrified. It scared him. She was not your average woman. She had knocked guys out before, in front of him. Why was she so scared?

He picked up the phone and dialed Booth's number, hoping to God that he was not too late……….

It wasn't long before Booth worked out what was wrong. As he pushed the keys into the lock of the door, it opened. It was swinging on its hinges, creaking eerily. He stood and looked at it for a while, not moving. Then panic kicked in.

"Bones? Bones where are you?" He stepped inside and looked around, his eyes darting everywhere for a sign as to where they were.

"Parker? Bones?"

His voice echoed around him, making the room swirl. He ran into the living room, throwing his case to the floor. The curtains were all closed, and there was no light anywhere. The television was showing a cartoon- Peter Pan. The bright colors danced on the screen in a huge blur, but no sound came from it. It had been muted, and the remote lay on the floor. The batteries had popped out and were lying a few feet away. Booth picked one up and stared at it, rolling it between his fingers. Still there was no sound.

He got up quickly and bolted into the kitchen. It was cool in there- the reason being the door was wide open. Looking around he could see nothing out of place, except the feathers on the floor. As he bent down to examine them, he felt a soft push against his leg. The cat had come in through the open door and was rubbing against him. He looked at it, wishing for the first time in his life that it could speak.

"Where are they?" he whispered, stroking it with shaking hands. Then he noticed- it's hackles were up.

He picked up a feather and looked at it, watching how it blew in the breeze. There were a few, a trail in fact, leading towards the back door. He picked them up, one by one, trying not to step on the disgruntled cat. The feathers were different colors, and were crumpled, like they had been disguarded in a hurry. There were long strands of brown hair clinging to some of them. Her hair.

"BONES! WHERE ARE YOU? Bones!" Booth was scared. For her, for his son. He was terrified.

Running to the back door, he let go of the feathers and called for both of them as loud as he could.

"BONES! PARKER! WHERE……."

He stopped dead in his tracks, for he had spotted something which scared him more than he had ever been scared in his life.

There was a deep red stain spreading across one of the patio tiles.

He froze, unable to think. Only the small voice behind him drew any response.

"Dad?"

The voice was full of terrible fear, and barely audible.

"Parker?"

He almost cried with relief as him son crawled out from behind the fridge and ran into his arms. He hugged him tighter than he ever had before, his breath coming in short gasps.

"Are you ok?" his voice shook as he held his son close to him.

"They took Bones, dad." Parker was shaking violently, cowering against his father's chest.

"They took her away and she didn't want to go! She was shouting dad!"

Parker was sobbing now, and it took Booth all his strength to hold hi still.

"Shh, it's gonna be ok, sshhhhhh."

He stoked his sons hair, trying to sound soothing.

But inside, he was sure it was not going to be ok.

Back at the lab, Hodgins was becoming frantic as the phone rang again and again, but no-one picked up.

**I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired! Going to sleep now, night night.**

**X x x x x x x x x x x**


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